Correction: Incorrect information was provided to the Courier-Herald about the victim’s city of residence; she lived in Bonney Lake, not Orting. Additionally, the parents of the victim live in Orting, not Buckley. The article has been corrected.
A 42 year-old man was arrested in rural Buckley on Saturday on suspicion of murder in University Place.
According to a Pierce County Sheriff’s Department Facebook post, a 911 call came in around 10:10 a.m. for a welfare check; the Orting-area caller told dispatchers that their daughter left that morning to pick up her child in-common from his father in University Place.
However, instead of the daughter returning, the child’s father arrived and dropped off the son. The parents were concerned, and could not reach the daughter by phone.
Deputies obtained a key to the Hillside Glenn Apartment Complex, where the father lived, and discovered a 40 year-old Bonney Lake woman dead from an apparent gunshot wound. A “be on the lookout” alert was sent out to other agencies.
Another 911 call came in around 1:39 p.m. about a suspicious vehicle parked in the 300th Avenue East area on a trail. The vehicle was registered to the suspect, and he was inside.
The Buckley Police Department and Pierce County deputies attempted to arrest the suspect, who was not listening to commands. Officers used less lethal rounds to break the car window to get the suspect to surrender.
According to Sgt. Darren Moss, the suspect moved from seat to seat, making it difficult to remove him from the car; deputies then used pepper balls, but the suspect did not leave the car.
The standoff lated about an hour until a SWAT team member arrived and more less lethal rounds and gas were used to force the suspect out of the car. The suspect still did not comply with orders, so deputies used a taser to subdue him and take him into custody.
The Pierce County blotter post noted that he was taken to a hospital to be cleared, and then will be booked for first-degree murder; Moss confirmed as of the morning of Dec. 11 the suspect was still in the hospital.
The suspect and victim have not yet been identified.
Additional information will be posted online.
